Author's note: This chapter is sponsored by Advin (aka Astro C). Thank you for your donation!

Host's note: The author's site no longer accepts donations for now. Speaking of donations, if a donation button appears for this story on RRL, then it will be linked to the author's account. I have no intention of making a profit off this and I'm not the author. I'm a reader like you.

On the path of cultivation, it is commonly known that in order for one to cultivate, one must absorb an essence called “Universal Qi” using their opened meridians inside their body.

The universal Qi is then sent to foster the body’s “Dantian”, or sea of energy. Only by doing so, would one be able to nourish their inner compartments, expand and strengthen their dantian, and increase their cultivation.

With a newly refined body and an urgent thirst for strength, Jin Xia closed his eyes and searched in his mind for a suitable cultivation technique for his current body. He did not bother with any martial arts technique.

After all, even with a different body, Jin Xia would still be able to utilize his past techniques when he was a deity. It was only the question whether or not his mortal body can withstand the backlash.

Thus, it was imperative for him to quickly rise in cultivation and body strength. Only then would he be able to unleash his martial arts. As such, Jin Xia would only need to train in a powerful body cultivation technique.

According to Jin Xia’s knowledge, any artifacts or techniques are ranked by the same system, from low to high:

No-grade, Low-grade, Mid-grade, Top-grade, Jade-grade, Soul-grade, Spatial-grade, World-grade, and Saint-grade.

While techniques and artifacts are ranked the same way, a skill with a grade would be a little more rare than artifacts of the same grade. That is because ranked skills are much harder to come by. It is not as if people could easily create martial techniques, since it requires incredibly deep comprehension and power to come up with an original skill.

The skills are judged based on its overall ability and effectiveness. As for ranking a technique, the process is exceptionally complex and vague. But in general, the cultivators are the ones who would acknowledge a skill’s rank, and this overall acknowledgement would be brought to be evaluated at what is called a Skill Palace.

Every country has at least one Skill Palace. The palace is basically an informational site, where new martial arts skills are ranked and recorded, and where cultivators could find information on previous graded skills.

This way, there is a general consensus of a technique’s “grade.”

In WuDang, Jin Xia conjectured that there should be no treasures or skills higher than World-grade. After all, even a First-rank world already has extremely few Saint-grade relics, much less a mere Second-rank world.

Moreover, as far as Jin Xia’s memory may serve him, the highest level of body techniques available in the Jin Clan is only the mid-grade, [Rising Over Heaven]. And this skill is only exclusive to be learned by the grand elders and patriarch of the Jin Clan. Someone like the previous Jin Xia would have no chance of even seeing it in his entire life perhaps.

After all, the fewer resources in this world the rarer the treasures become as it moves up a grade.

But this was absolutely not an issue for Jin Xia. Having plundered across spatial worlds and gods, Jin Xia had not only learned various powerful techniques, but gained an unparalleled knowledge in the ways of Life and Dao.

In fact, just randomly taking out any technique from his memory would already be greatly surpassing the skills found in this world. Even if it’s the same grade, the quality and efficiency is incomparable.

Dead into the night, Jin Xia slowly opened his eyes. He had finally decided on a cultivation technique for his body.

“Mmm…I’ll go with this [Imperial Heart] body cultivation.”

Jin Xia thought as he once again closed his eyes and rested his hands upon his crossed legs.

With the Imperial Heart body cultivation skill there are four layers: Midnight Dream layer, Chaos Mirage layer, Silent heart layer, and Absolute heart layer.

While this skill will strengthen one’s body greatly beyond a normal cultivator’s physique, to advance each layer is tantamount to overcoming a huge mountain. It is said that many people who had cultivated this body technique were barely even able to grasp he first layer, with a few able to enter the first layer.

Though, in the end all these people were either unable to cultivate this skill or stuck in the first layer for their entire life.

But legends has it that if one was able to successfully train to the 4th layer, it would be literally be equivalent to having another “heart” hidden in one’s body.

The “heart” would appear at a random discreet location in one’s body after entering the 2nd layer of Imperial Heart, such that even the owner themselves would not be able to detect this change.

But only at a crucial moment, this “heart” would suddenly appear and sacrifice its essence for its master, giving the user practically a new “life.” But no one knows if this is actually true, or how it even works. Although just by the sheer difficulty of practicing this technique, very few actually dared to cultivate it.

As such, Imperial Heart was only ranked as a Soul-grade technique. If not for its crazy difficulty, this skill would have been ranked as World-grade, or even Saint-grade possibly!

But nonetheless, in the end this technique is already a hundred times more priceless than the strongest technique that the Jin Clan has.

As Jin Xia sat with his legs crossed on his bed, he began to cultivate the Imperial Heart skill and absorb the Universal Qi around him at the same time.

While JIn Xia cultivated, he began to think silently to himself as he planned what to do next.

“With my experiences as a deity, the first three to four realms should pose no high difficulty for me to cross…as for the “old” Jin Xia’s problems, I will ignore it for now. If it comes up later, then I’ll deal with it. If not, then that’s that…”

Jin Xia pondered in his head as the meridians and dantian in his body began to expand a rapid rate. With Jin Xia’s body having gone through a perfect refinement, his absorption speed of the Universal Qi has increased by nearly tenfold from his original rate!

BOOM! *pshhh*

He broke through to Wudan 4th stage.

Without another word, Jin Xia continued to cultivate. A mere jump in the first realm is nothing to be excited about for him.

BOOM! *pshhh*

“…”

BOOM! *pshhh*

“…”

BOOM! *pshhh*

“…”

As Jin Xia continued to absorb, maneuver, and expand his dantian, his cultivation began to rapidly rise. With every breakthrough, Jin Xia’s body released a small, thick white gas.

The gas that exits one’s body signifies one’s successful breakthrough. But at the same time, the density and hue of the gas represent the solidity of one’s cultivation base. The more solid and stable one’s cultivation base is after a breakthrough, the denser and more clear the gas will be.

Unlike most cultivators who release barely discernible transparent gas, Jin Xia’s body gave off a white gas which was extremely dense, and was accompanied by a powerful faint pressure exuding from it.

This meant that Jin Xia’s cultivation base was able to remain highly stable after each breakthrough, preventing any drop in strength or instability in his cultivation.

In reality, this should be impossible as cultivators have to rest after each breakthrough to completely solidify their dantian. Otherwise, if they continuously breakthrough stages, their cultivation will be instable and could potentially harm them in the long run.

But it was different for Jin Xia.

He was using his soul force to maintain stability within his dantian. This way, he would be able to continuously break through in his cultivation without rest, while at the same time solving the problem of a solid dantian base!

It was simply a method that should have been impossible to succeed, but it did under Jin Xia’s control.

Although using soul force requires an immense amount of energy, with Jin Xia’s mighty soul of a deity, this method was the quickest way for him to rise in strength.

Furthermore, Jin Xia was confident that any realms below Divine Cosmos would not pose a problem for him. To him, who possessed boundless experience and resources, these levels would be quite simple to reach. It is only when one attempts to reach the Divine Cosmos realm, would one have to then rely on their own divine will to progress any further. Normal resources at this point are of little use.

BOOM! *pshhh*

Jin Xia continued to quietly cultivated in his room.

After an unknown amount of time, a small light peaked out from the black horizon as a new day emerged...

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Also, the user Celdum asked in the reviews how I got the image for the fiction. I went to the author's site, took the image, uploaded onto an image hosting site that allows editing, and changed the dimensions to meet RRL's cover specifics. As for the original image source, I have no idea. Try right click, Google search for this image and sift through what pops up.